Project 86H_Living
86H is our house number but it's become something more than an address. It's the name for everything we're building inside these walls: a space that inspires us daily to make it more beautiful, more thoughtful, more us.
86H_living is where we chase that decorating with intention, elevating every corner, and creating a home our family truly loves living in.
Our Home Journey
We found this house in June 2023 after months of searching that turned into a battle with the municipality before we could even sign. Buying in Amsterdam is never simple, especially on a set budget and in a central area. Ground-floor apartments suited for a family are rare, and the ones you do find are either far out of reach or far from move-in ready. Ours sat somewhere on the edge of acceptable livable, but clearly waiting for us.
Six months later, the papers were finally signed. We were homeowners, and the real work could begin.
The first renovation came right after the purchase: reshaping the layout, redoing the bathroom, redoing the kitchen. This fall, we're taking on round two new floors, a new heating system, new windows throughout. Come spring, it'll be the garden's turn.
Step by step, we're building a home that feels like us a space our family can grow into, and one that meets the standards we hold for the life we want to live in it. This is where we'll share that journey: the renovations, the lifestyle around them, the things we love, and the things we're still dreaming of bringing in.
Welcome we're glad you're here.
UP NEXT
Every once in a while, we open the door to a home across Amsterdam that inspires us — different styles, different people, different ways of living. It's a small reminder that a personal space can take many shapes, just like the city itself.
Know a home, maybe even yours that deserves a feature?
Who we are.
We're Filotas, Eirini, and our daughter Daphne. We live in Amsterdam West, in a home we're slowly making our own.
This blog is where we share it all our house, our everyday life, and the moments with family and friends that make it feel like home.
Why we're doing this?
We started this because we wanted a place to hold onto it all the small wins, the slow renovations, the everyday moments that are easy to forget once they've passed. It's less about showing a finished home, and more about sharing the process of making one.
One more thing…
If you're wondering about the name 86H is our house number. Somewhere along the way, it became more than an address. It's what we call this whole project: the home, the renovation, the life we're building around it.
The First Renovation
It started on January 5th, 2024, and ran until the 1st of March eight weeks that felt a lot longer. The layout of the house threw up challenge after challenge, and every choice, big or small, took real thought. Working alongside an incredible designer, we slowly brought our vision to life: a funky, modern home that still felt like us.
It wasn't easy. Even knowing our choices would pay off, the process itself was hard there were moments, even mid-paint-roller, when we felt unsure, even a little scared. Doubt is part of building something new.
What we learned, though, is that you can never really be sure of anything until it's real. A 3D rendering is never the same as standing in the actual space. Rooms need time to reveal themselves and so do your own ideas. Give both room to grow, and they will.
These photos are where that lesson began.
A Street With History
Our street first came to life in 1917, built on land that once held timber sawmills, in The Hague's Zeeheldenkwartier the "Sea Heroes Quarter." It carried a different name at first, honoring a 19th-century Dutch statesman, before becoming Crispijnstraat in 1921 named, fittingly, for the patron saint of shoemakers, the same year a shoemakers' school opened right here.
Like the rest of the neighborhood, it saw quieter, harder decades after the war, when grand old houses were split up and the street feel took a back seat to passing traffic. But by the 1980s, the whole quarter was lovingly restored, street by street and today it's one of the most colorful, lived-in corners of the city, home to people from all over the world.
A small, layered history and now, part of the address we call home.
